548
tampering with figures.
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13. I desire to correct, by a brief explanation, whatever false impression these statements may convey to Your Lordship's mind. Having for many years taken deep interest in the study and science of forestry and being impressed with the sanitary advantages it would be to Hong Kong's hills with trees as rapidly as possible, I addressed to the present Governor some months after His Excellency's arrival in the Colony the report which is adjoined (Appendix II) and to which Mr Ford refers.
The materials for that report were not borrowed from Mr. Ford's previous writings, because study and practical observation had made me familiar enough with my subject, and because upon matters of afforestation Mr Ford would not be an authority from whom I would quote, however much I might be disposed to defer to his abilities as a gardener. The list of trees is simply a compilation of the returns prepared by the officers in personal charge of this particular branch of the Department. I had the Superintendent, Mr Ford's returns to the end of 1874, and subsequent to that, the returns of Mr Bowdler, the Acting Superintendent. The two together made up the figures returned by me in my Report of August 1874.
The figures are therefore quite correct. In Returns of this kind, the figures are cumulative, as more trees are planted from year to year.